The National Geographic Magazine
From Lonely Mingulay Comes This Fine Ram
Fleeces sheared from this island's herds are sent to Glasgow to market, but in
South Uist most of the wool is kept for local use. From yarn spun on kitchen
spinning wheels come blankets, underwear, socks, jerseys, and handsome tweeds.
Around the fire in the evening, the island
folk talk and sing. The men who have been
deep-sea sailing have traveled in all corners of
the earth. We hear in Gaelic about the grand
climate of Valparaiso, and the cousin from
Kilbride whom Roderick saw in Vancouver.
As evening grows late, the talk is of old
days-the potato famine when people ate the
nettle and the root of the silverweed cinque
foil.
Then steals in the supernatural tale. Sec
ond sight is still known, and the evil eye is
not long hidden. There is still the seventh
son with the gift to cure the king's evil
(scrofula).
There is the tale of the Brahan Seer in the
17th century, whose mother got him the gift
of prophecy one night
while herding cows
near the graveyard. At
midnight the graves
opened and the ghosts
came up and flew away.
One was a lovely
woman and, when she
had gone, the mother
put her spindle across
the opening of her
empty grave.
When the creature
came back, she could
not get in for the spin
dle's being there. She
was a princess of Nor
way and had visited her
homeland that night.
As a reward for remov
ing the spindle, the
mother was given a
snake stone which her
son should have and
through it see all things
to come.
Alas for the gift! It
led him to a death by
burning in a barrel of
tar, for such was the
command of a furious
mistress for whom he
foretold ill fortune.
Flora Macdonald and
Bonnie Prince
Charlie
Stories are heard,
too, of Prince Charles
Edward Stuart, who
made his first landing
on Scottish soil in the
Hebrides (page 256).
The little bay where he came ashore in 1745
on the island of Eriskay bears his name, and
there grows the Convolvulus sepium that he
planted with seed brought from France.
After the tragic Battle of Culloden, April
16, 1746, Prince Charles returned to the
islands, to wander from South Uist to Storno
way, on Lewis Island, and back, cold and
wet, plagued with midges and lack of money,
a price of 30,000 pounds on his head. It was
in South Uist that his followers found the
valiant Flora Macdonald, who was returning
to Skye.
Dressed as Flora's maid, he eventually
reached Skye, whence he made his escape to
the mainland and to France.
In late September and October the sun
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